Always wanted to build a blink deck. Finally buckled down and ordered the cards for this bad boy will start initial testing next week. So looking for some criticism and advice.
Rasputin is one of my favorite decks. I believe he's best played to demoralize your opponents because you just do silly things that don't seem very useful or sit around playing politics until you're ready to just drop an explosion in someone's direction (blink Rasputin 5 times, drop an Eldrazi and some other creature, clone it a bunch of times, give everything haste, have Venser make it all unblockable, take 35 damage or blink Rasputin 5 or 6 times, deck someone, etc.).
Most of your deck looks like stuff that's in mine and others I've seen, but here are some random things I use that I didn't see on your list.
One trick I'm a fan of running is the "roll out the Dreamweaver. Remove all counters. Do something rude."
Some things I like to use:
Karn Liberated The whole table panics when this guy lands.
All Is Dust It's another Wrath-like effect that is sometimes beneficial to you if you have a bunch of crazy stuff in play it won't blow up (like other things in this list).
Akroma's Memorial This + Rite of Replication sometimes just wins games.
Triskelion Him + many blink tricks is really really annoying.
Myr Battlesphere Not as good as some of these others, but if it lives and swings, someone is going to have a bad day. (Double bonus if you happen to Rite of Rep or Metamorph or Sakashima it.)
(Duplicant also falls in this category, of course.)
Some more bounce effects also go nicely with Rasputin and some of the other tricks you normally run. Two I like are Venser, Shaper Savant and Tidespout Tyrant.
I like Hallowed Burial (or Terminus) over Supreme Verdict because tucking people's Commanders drives them nuts, although you obviously have to be careful when to do this.
Another couple of useful blink effects are Conjurer's Closet and Galepowder Mage (the Mage does really silly things if you clone it and swing with it-- flies and can knock all potential blockers out of oyur way). I also use Nim Deathmantle as a defensive blink (it's also very frustrating for your opponents if you have any creature they want to kill and are sitting there with a Rasputin with 4 counters up). Shoot Rasputin? No, he will save himself.
I also like running out "irrelevant" targets for my opponents to concentrate on while I set up something really insane for Rasputin to do. Anything really bomb-looking will draw fire at itself while you can keep looking like you're otherwise doing nothing while you set up something insane (or if they don't deal with it, you can use it for victory). I run other planeswalkers (usually Tezzeret the Seeker and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage), Avacyn, Angel of Hope plus assorted Eldrazi depending on the day.
Treasure Mage is also good to fetch your annoying 6 and 7 cost artifacts of doom (Trinket Mage also if you have more things to fetch than just Sol Ring.)
My metagame is a bit strange in that massive blinks like Rift and DevTide won't do much, as everyone has so much ramp they just pick it all up and then throw it all back down (Rift, of course, is great if you're going to kill someone immediately). Lots of people play lots of green (and several people have decks that are throwing out Mana Flare and Heartbeat of Spring, which usually doesn't end well for someone :)) So I don't run anything like that which is how I have space for a lot of this nonsense.
One other not-so-secret weapon-- Knight-Captain of Eos. He can stop you from dying a lot (especially if you flash him out) and he also has a useful blink effect.
I think you need a Reliquary Tower in your mana base as well.
The only card I saw on your list that I thought I might take out would be Sunblast Angel. Most everything else is pretty solid either for the Rasputin/blink thing or standard U/W EDH staples. I might also pull the blue Primordial and Titan as they're a bit off-theme, but they're also pretty solid to use as beaters, which every deck needs.
If you are a money-is-no-object person (I am not), two really good but really expensive includes are Mana Drain and Timetwister (which would be demoralizing like a well-time Time Spiral, but everyone would also be going, "I just got Power 9 played against me in a Commander match."-- I've seen this happen before :))
Finally, there are several other really good Rasputin lists on this forum, so I'd search for them. Lots of different sneaky tech variations you can use.
I like the deck it looks pretty tight. The only cards that I personally don't like are Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation. I've just never found them to be worth committing to. Winding Canyons is a great way to get this effect though. It taps for mana when you need it to, and it acts as a flash outlet as well. It also doesn't get reset when you cast Devastation Tide.
I say you did a much better job with this initial list than I did when I started mine. I'm sure you'll be able to get a better feel of what you need and how you want the deck to play out after your share of games with it, and I assure you that those games will be really fun!
At the moment, I noticed your deck is leaning on having lots and lots of ways to abuse ETB effects. While this is not really bad in itself (and most would say is the point of making a blink deck), I've learned from experience that having too many ETB enablers can result in having lots of ways to blink things, but having nothing to blink. Since you have a lot of instants, you might want to consider doubling your Archeomancer by making space for Mnemonic Wall, then following that up by adding Familiar's Ruse.
From experience with my own Rasputin deck and discussion with the others from the forums, I can definitely say that you can tune your Rasputin deck to be aggro, combo, control, and anything in between. Enjoy the ride!
I found Mnemonic Wall to be good fun (I see you already have Archaeomancer).
Conjurer's Closet is pretty tight, and operates a lot like Venser's +2; you can cast Rasputin, and then he can power out the Closet right away.
Venser, Shaper Savant is unbelievably powerful (he's in place of Draining Whelk in my list), but the spiked in price I-don't-know-when, so it might be hard to get a hold of or justify the cost if you're at all on a budget.]
Nim Deathmantle makes Rasputin very hard to deal with. Your other creatures also.
Twilight Shepherd is something I want to try, but haven't gotten around to including.
Ok brought the deck to GP Charlotte, played a couple games, and came to a couple considerations.
-Sunblast Angel is indeed underwhelming
-Mnemonic Wall is a good idea, I always found myself wanting more of that effect
-I made the deck Isperia instead of Rasputin for personal reasons, knowing full well that Rasputin is probably better
-I might need more artifact and enchantment hate, but not sure
-I never found myself with an abundance of blink enablers and nothing to blink, so I think my balance is at least close
Venser, Shaper Savant is good, I just tend not to run legends other than my commander.
Deathmantle isn't as good now that I don't run Rasputin.
Twilight Shepherd might very well be worth testing.
Conjurer's Closet I tested because I didn't have a Cloudstone Curio, and I wasn't the biggest fan. Might try it a bit longer though.
Reliquary Tower I need, and Laboratory I need to check how many wizards I run now that my commander isn't one.
And if I added any more draw it would be either Recurring Insight or Slithermuse.
Ok brought the deck to GP Charlotte, played a couple games, and came to a couple considerations.
-Sunblast Angel is indeed underwhelming
-Mnemonic Wall is a good idea, I always found myself wanting more of that effect
-I made the deck Isperia instead of Rasputin for personal reasons, knowing full well that Rasputin is probably better
-I might need more artifact and enchantment hate, but not sure
-I never found myself with an abundance of blink enablers and nothing to blink, so I think my balance is at least close
Venser, Shaper Savant is good, I just tend not to run legends other than my commander.
Deathmantle isn't as good now that I don't run Rasputin.
Twilight Shepherd might very well be worth testing.
Conjurer's Closet I tested because I didn't have a Cloudstone Curio, and I wasn't the biggest fan. Might try it a bit longer though.
Reliquary Tower I need, and Laboratory I need to check how many wizards I run now that my commander isn't one.
And if I added any more draw it would be either Recurring Insight or Slithermuse.
First, I must say that I'm happy that you choose this commander because I want to see its strong list (I am a fan of sphinx.)
I don't think Twilight Shepherd is a good idea. It is not a bad one. It just not THAT useful.
Conjurer's Closet is strong, however, I don't run it because it is quite easy to destroy but hard to return to play. Venser (Planeswalker) is damn hard to return too but a little bit more resilient and if you can keep it for a certain period of time, everyone tend to concede.
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I'm sorry this post is so long, I didn't have time to make it shorter.
1x Isperia, Supreme Judge
Creatures
1x Angel of Serenity
1x Archaeomancer
1x Body Double
1x Chancellor of the Spires
1x Deadeye Navigator
1x Diluvian Primordial
1x Draining Whelk
1x Duplicant
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Frost Titan
1x Karmic Guide
1x Kederekt Leviathan
1x Knight of the White Orchid
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Luminate Primordial
1x Man-o'-War
1x Mirror Entity
1x Mistmeadow Witch
1x Mulldrifter
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Restoration Angel
1x Reveillark
1x Seht's Tiger
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Sphinx of Uthuun
1x Stonecloaker
1x Stonehorn Dignitary
1x Sun Titan
1x Sunblast Angel
1x Voidmage Husher
1x Wall of Omens
1x Cloudshift
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Evacuation
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Faith's Reward
1x Ghostly Flicker
1x Ghostway
1x Hinder
1x Momentary Blink
1x Path to Exile
1x Rapid Hybridization
1x Return to Dust
1x Spell Crumple
1x Sphinx's Revelation
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Vanish into Memory
Artifacts
1x Azorius Signet
1x Cloudstone Curio
1x Coalition Relic
1x Crystal Shard
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Sol Ring
1x Talisman of Progress
1x Vedalken Orrery
Sorceries
1x Austure Command
1x Devastation Tide
1x Rite of Replication
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Leyline of Anticipation
Planeswalker
1x Venser, the Sojourner
Land
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Celestial Colonnade
1x Command Tower
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x High Market
12x Island
1x Kor Haven
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Mystic Gate
1x Mystifying Maze
1x Nimbus Maze
12x Plains
1x Strip Mine
1x Temple of the False God
1x Winding Canyons
Most of your deck looks like stuff that's in mine and others I've seen, but here are some random things I use that I didn't see on your list.
One trick I'm a fan of running is the "roll out the Dreamweaver. Remove all counters. Do something rude."
Some things I like to use:
Karn Liberated The whole table panics when this guy lands.
All Is Dust It's another Wrath-like effect that is sometimes beneficial to you if you have a bunch of crazy stuff in play it won't blow up (like other things in this list).
Akroma's Memorial This + Rite of Replication sometimes just wins games.
Triskelion Him + many blink tricks is really really annoying.
Myr Battlesphere Not as good as some of these others, but if it lives and swings, someone is going to have a bad day. (Double bonus if you happen to Rite of Rep or Metamorph or Sakashima it.)
(Duplicant also falls in this category, of course.)
Some more bounce effects also go nicely with Rasputin and some of the other tricks you normally run. Two I like are Venser, Shaper Savant and Tidespout Tyrant.
I like Hallowed Burial (or Terminus) over Supreme Verdict because tucking people's Commanders drives them nuts, although you obviously have to be careful when to do this.
Another couple of useful blink effects are Conjurer's Closet and Galepowder Mage (the Mage does really silly things if you clone it and swing with it-- flies and can knock all potential blockers out of oyur way). I also use Nim Deathmantle as a defensive blink (it's also very frustrating for your opponents if you have any creature they want to kill and are sitting there with a Rasputin with 4 counters up). Shoot Rasputin? No, he will save himself.
I also like running out "irrelevant" targets for my opponents to concentrate on while I set up something really insane for Rasputin to do. Anything really bomb-looking will draw fire at itself while you can keep looking like you're otherwise doing nothing while you set up something insane (or if they don't deal with it, you can use it for victory). I run other planeswalkers (usually Tezzeret the Seeker and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage), Avacyn, Angel of Hope plus assorted Eldrazi depending on the day.
I run lots of added card draw as well (Recurring Insight, Blue Sun's Zenith, Consecrated Sphinx and Time Spiral which is also a bonus opponent demoralizer in some situations).
Treasure Mage is also good to fetch your annoying 6 and 7 cost artifacts of doom (Trinket Mage also if you have more things to fetch than just Sol Ring.)
My metagame is a bit strange in that massive blinks like Rift and DevTide won't do much, as everyone has so much ramp they just pick it all up and then throw it all back down (Rift, of course, is great if you're going to kill someone immediately). Lots of people play lots of green (and several people have decks that are throwing out Mana Flare and Heartbeat of Spring, which usually doesn't end well for someone :)) So I don't run anything like that which is how I have space for a lot of this nonsense.
One other not-so-secret weapon-- Knight-Captain of Eos. He can stop you from dying a lot (especially if you flash him out) and he also has a useful blink effect.
I think you need a Reliquary Tower in your mana base as well.
The only card I saw on your list that I thought I might take out would be Sunblast Angel. Most everything else is pretty solid either for the Rasputin/blink thing or standard U/W EDH staples. I might also pull the blue Primordial and Titan as they're a bit off-theme, but they're also pretty solid to use as beaters, which every deck needs.
If you are a money-is-no-object person (I am not), two really good but really expensive includes are Mana Drain and Timetwister (which would be demoralizing like a well-time Time Spiral, but everyone would also be going, "I just got Power 9 played against me in a Commander match."-- I've seen this happen before :))
Finally, there are several other really good Rasputin lists on this forum, so I'd search for them. Lots of different sneaky tech variations you can use.
Hope that helps.
Dan
Also as the poster above me said, there are some good lists on here and we all play a little differently.
Check out XeroedFool, Pinguis, Jylichan's lists. And mine of course.
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane for the awesome Sig.
Currently Playing- EDH
GGGOmnath, Locus of the LifestreamGGG
BBBShirei, Lord of PoniesBBB
UWRasputin Dreamweaver, Russia's Greatest Love MachineUW
UBWZur, Killer of FunUBW
UGWTreva, Princess of CanterlotUGW
RWTajic, Master of the Reverse BladeRW
RRRZirilan, How to Train Your DragonRRR
PDH Decks
Gelectrode
Ascended Lawmage
Blaze Commando
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
At the moment, I noticed your deck is leaning on having lots and lots of ways to abuse ETB effects. While this is not really bad in itself (and most would say is the point of making a blink deck), I've learned from experience that having too many ETB enablers can result in having lots of ways to blink things, but having nothing to blink. Since you have a lot of instants, you might want to consider doubling your Archeomancer by making space for Mnemonic Wall, then following that up by adding Familiar's Ruse.
From experience with my own Rasputin deck and discussion with the others from the forums, I can definitely say that you can tune your Rasputin deck to be aggro, combo, control, and anything in between. Enjoy the ride!
Augustin, Rasputin, Bruna, Brago, Ojutai
Conjurer's Closet is pretty tight, and operates a lot like Venser's +2; you can cast Rasputin, and then he can power out the Closet right away.
Venser, Shaper Savant is unbelievably powerful (he's in place of Draining Whelk in my list), but the spiked in price I-don't-know-when, so it might be hard to get a hold of or justify the cost if you're at all on a budget.]
Nim Deathmantle makes Rasputin very hard to deal with. Your other creatures also.
Twilight Shepherd is something I want to try, but haven't gotten around to including.
Your list is otherwise very near to mine.
http://www.commandercast.com/category/articles/generally-speaking
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-Sunblast Angel is indeed underwhelming
-Mnemonic Wall is a good idea, I always found myself wanting more of that effect
-I made the deck Isperia instead of Rasputin for personal reasons, knowing full well that Rasputin is probably better
-I might need more artifact and enchantment hate, but not sure
-I never found myself with an abundance of blink enablers and nothing to blink, so I think my balance is at least close
Venser, Shaper Savant is good, I just tend not to run legends other than my commander.
Deathmantle isn't as good now that I don't run Rasputin.
Twilight Shepherd might very well be worth testing.
Conjurer's Closet I tested because I didn't have a Cloudstone Curio, and I wasn't the biggest fan. Might try it a bit longer though.
Reliquary Tower I need, and Laboratory I need to check how many wizards I run now that my commander isn't one.
And if I added any more draw it would be either Recurring Insight or Slithermuse.
First, I must say that I'm happy that you choose this commander because I want to see its strong list (I am a fan of sphinx.)
My favourite artifact/ enchanment removal:
1. Aura of Silence
2. Return To Dust (You've already run it.)
3. Oblation For it versatility.
4. Abolish Since it can get around a tricky stuff like Contamination.
5. Dismantling Blow After all, people don't like spot removal because it doesn't produce a card advantage.
6. Disenchant It is really cheap which is handy.
I don't think Twilight Shepherd is a good idea. It is not a bad one. It just not THAT useful.
Conjurer's Closet is strong, however, I don't run it because it is quite easy to destroy but hard to return to play. Venser (Planeswalker) is damn hard to return too but a little bit more resilient and if you can keep it for a certain period of time, everyone tend to concede.
This deck has been featured in Gathering Magic by Carlos Gutierrez